


The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

by zornslemon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Frozen Fusion, Angst, Gen, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 11:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1119468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zornslemon/pseuds/zornslemon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When one sister is magical and one is not, it is completely intolerable. Frozen AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheTomatoWriter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTomatoWriter/gifts).



> Written for Alex for the possibly unnamed and definitely belated winter holiday gift exchange. Happy New Year!

When your younger sister has magical powers and you don’t, it is completely intolerable. So when Petunia first sees Lily create a snowball out of thin air, she can’t feel anything other than resentment.

“Tuney look!” Lily squeals.

Petunia sighs. “Lily, we have a music lesson to get to.”

\---

Lily’s powers get stronger until she can turn their whole great hall into a winter wonderland. It’s kind of impressive and completely infuriating. (Petunia keeps trying to see if she can do it too, but she can’t get even a little bit of snow to form.)

“Come on, Tuney. Let’s play,” Lily says, skating around on ice she’s made herself.

“I have needlepoint to work on,” Petunia says.

Lily gives her a look. “Needlepoint? Come on, do you want to build a snowman?”

Petunia smiles faintly, placing the needlepoint down carefully. She doesn’t want to ruin her work, but she doesn’t like this pattern much anyways. “Sure.”

She tries not to think too hard about how Lily’s doing too much of the actual building, because when she doesn’t, the whole thing is pretty fun. She even finds herself hugging a snowman, which somehow feels less silly when it’s the snowman Lily made.

“Look out!” Lily screams, launching a snowball at Petunia.

“Two can play at this game,” Petunia says, packing together snow and tossing it at Lily.

Lily shrieks and tosses back the snowball with her magic, and they start to settle into a rhythm until Lily throws something and suddenly Petunia can feel her head freezing up.

That’s the last thing Petunia remembers of that day.

\---

Petunia doesn’t even realize that Lily’s stayed in her room since the incident until a few days later when it dawns on her that things aren’t quite right.

She knocks on Lily’s door. “Lily?” she says, trying not to sound concerned.

There’s no response from the other side of the door.

“Lily, do you want to build a snowman?” Petunia asks.

After a second of silence, there’s a response.

“Go away,” Lily says mutedly.

It’s atypical for Lily, but Petunia lets it be. Everyone has bad days.

\---

When she hasn’t seen Lily a week later, she figures she’ll give it another chance.

“Do you want to build a snowman?” she asks, knocking on the door.

No response.

“It doesn’t have to be a snowman,” she tries.

Still no answer.

“I just never see you anymore, Lily. What’s going on? Is there something I should know about. I-I can talk to Mom and Dad if something’s wrong.”

When there’s no response again, Petunia doesn’t try again.

Instead, she tries to make everything herself, because she figures that if she tries really hard, she can’t fail. Still, no matter how hard she tries, she can’t get even a single snowflake to form.

She goes outside and builds a snowman the normal way. It’s disappointing to say the least.

\---

By the time she’s twelve years old, Petunia barely even looks at Lily’s door anymore. They still live in the same castle, but they haven’t spent time together since they were children, and that’s just fine with Petunia. She doesn’t need her sister causing more trouble in her life.

She doesn’t want the magic anymore either, and she can’t help but think of her younger self as naïve for wanting it. She knows now that normal people can’t do magic, and she can finally see Lily for what she is: a freak. And she thinks that maybe, if someone asked her about her little sister, she’d have no problem saying that Lily is a freak out loud.

But, of course, there is no one who would ask.

\---

When their parents die, there’s a private funeral. Lily doesn’t come, and Petunia is embarrassed. So maybe the whole kingdom doesn’t know that Lily can’t be bothered to mourn her own parents, but Petunia can hear their friends whispering, and she knows what the whispers are about.

She knocks on Lily’s door for the first time in years.

“Lily? Please, I know you’re in there. You’re never anywhere else. Speaking of which, people are asking questions about you, and I don’t think you’ll like the answers I have to give. Can you come out just this once? Or even more than that? They’re going through the will tomorrow, and there’s all this paperwork, and I don’t know if I can do it alone.”

She’s not exactly surprised when Lily doesn’t respond, but she has to try just one more thing, just in case it might elicit a response.

“Do you want to build a snowman?” she asks quietly.

It doesn’t work.

\---

She starts leaving the house more. Her parents hadn’t let her leave the castle without good reason, but she’s more or less in charge now, and she sees no reason to stay inside as long as she’s surrounded by security guards and servants whenever she’s in public.

She meets Vernon in the market one day as she’s buying new embroidery floss. (She’s gotten really good at needlepoint.) He’s not a handsome man nor a particularly interesting one, but he’s from a good family, and he seems reliable. Petunia could use someone reliable in her life.

\---

Petunia tells the servants that if Lily does not go to her coronation of her own free will, they are to physically drag her out of her room and make sure she is in attendance. Petunia isn’t sure if that’s what actually happened, but she spots Lily in the audience during the ceremony, so at least something went right. That’s good. She doesn’t need any disturbance on what’s supposed to be her day.

There’s a ball after the ceremony, and Vernon pulls her aside at the start to propose. It’s a passionless proposal, and he doesn’t even kneel down, but it doesn’t matter. Petunia’s been expecting this for a while. She of course accepts and makes a brief announcement to those in the ballroom.

What she doesn’t expect is for Lily to approach her a minute later.

“Petunia, can we talk?” she asks.

“I suppose now’s as good a time as any,” Petunia says, and it’s more passive aggressive than she had planned, but maybe that’s what she needs.

“I mean talk alone,” Lily says.

“I’d rather not leave the party,” Petunia says.

“Fine then,” Lily says, lowering her voice significantly. “I think you should reconsider your engagement.”

“And why would I ever do that?”

“Oh, please. You can’t tell me you’re in love with Vernon.”

“It doesn’t matter whether or not I am. Vernon is a suitable husband.”

“Suitable? Suitable?” Lily says. Her voice is rising, not enough to cause a commotion but enough that other people can definitely hear the conversation. “You can’t tell me you’re marrying someone just because he’s suitable.”

“I’m a queen. That’s how things work,” Petunia says, trying to stay calm.

“Yeah, you’re a queen, so you don’t slurp your soup or burp in public. It doesn’t mean you have to marry a man you barely even like,” Lily says. She’s talking loudly enough now that pretty much everyone in the ballroom can hear her.

Before Petunia can say anything, Lily lets out a frustrated yelp of sorts and ice crystals spring up from the ground. They’re bigger than the ones Lily could make as a child.

Petunia frowns, but inwardly, she’s almost a little relieved that at least now everyone knows why Lily’s so weird.

“You know what? If that’s how things are, I’m not going to be a part of it,” Lily says. She runs out of the ballroom, leaving a trail of ice behind her.

Petunia stands still, staring at the trail of ice. The temperature of the room seems to be dropping, and the ice expands until it fills the entire ballroom, and, as far as Petunia can tell from looking out the window, the ice seems to be covering their surroundings too. It’s Lily’s fault and everyone knows it. She’s definitely gotten more powerful.

She doesn’t go after Lily, and she doesn’t send someone else to go after Lily for her. If the ice persists, she’ll find a way to adjust.


End file.
